Obama tactics raise doubts about college proposal

Published 2:57 pm, Friday, February 6, 2015

President Obama addresses students at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. He wants to make two years of community college free.

President Obama addresses students at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. He wants to make two years of community college free.

Photo: Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Obama tactics raise doubts about college proposal

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WASHINGTON — Four days before President Obama unveiled a sweeping $60 billion vision of free community college for millions of Americans, his staff reached out to Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary and a Republican authority on the issue.

But even as they invited Alexander to ride with Obama aboard Air Force One for the announcement in Knoxville, Tenn., last month, White House aides made it clear that they were informing the senator about the plan, not consulting him. In return, Alexander was uncompromising: He would not support the president’s big idea.

“They didn’t ask for advice on developing a proposal,” Alexander said. “I would have suggested a different approach.”

As the president travels across the country promoting a bold and expensive domestic agenda for his last two years in office — including a trip on Friday to Indiana to push his community college proposal — his strategy on Capitol Hill is raising questions about what Obama hopes to accomplish.

Is he trying to pass legislation in cooperation with an often-hostile Republican-controlled Congress? Or is he mainly trying to bring attention to issues that he sees as burnishing his legacy and that will set the table for the 2016 presidential campaign?

Obama has so far found little traction with Congress on major domestic policy proposals related to child care, paid sick leave, tax policy and higher education. His legislative aides have struggled to find Republicans willing to endorse the legislation. Few say they have even been approached by Obama’s staff.

“You would think that he would have reached out by now to people like me who have a background on it,” said Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., who served for years as the chancellor of that state’s community college system. “None of that has happened.’’

Other Republicans on Capitol Hill say that if Obama’s aim is to get things done, he will have to abandon many of his domestic policy ideas to focus on areas of mutual interest like trade and a business tax overhaul.

White House officials insist that they are pursuing an aggressive legislative strategy to win passage of the president’s college plan. They also say that the president’s efforts to win support among mayors, governors and the public are intended to build pressure on Congress to act.